Welcome to Olive and Bleu.I'm Lauren & I'm so glad you stopped by! This is a collection of musings on design, art, craftiness, fashion, food, decorating, weddings and other things that make life lovely. I hope you enjoy!

I am so blushing over here. And feeling some serious L-O-V-E! A GINORMOUS THANK YOU to everyone who has entered my Giveaway and to those who have shared the love on their blogs. I am honored to be included on the following pretties:

Good morning lovely readers. I hope everyone had sweet dreams. I am hanging out in bed with my coffee, trying to talk myself into getting up, but its so cold in our bedroom! Ugh. This weather makes it really hard to be productive.

My mom and I popped into Anthropologie this past weekend and I came across this adorable dish towel. It has the traditional gift given for each anniversary listed- how fun is that? As a newlywed, I am still totally enamored with all things that celebrate marriage. I think this little pretty will have to be mine.

The gift for the first anniversary is paper and I already have an awesome idea. I promise to share after I give the hubs his gift.

On this little blog I talk a lot about crafting, fashion, food, design and wedding goodness. I love all of these things, and find creative inspiration and passion in them. But sometimes you have to talk about the really important stuff too. With all of the work that goes into the wedding planning, I am also always thinking of ways to make not only the wedding amazing, but the marriage that comes with it amazing and wonderful as well. I love gathering insight into other people's relationships and marriages and truly feel the more I learn, the more I can devote to making ours the best possible.

My sweet friend Laine introduced me to a blog called Todays Letters that has become such an inspiration to me. The Loerke's have been married for 5 years and live right here in Dallas (woot!) And, while I don't know them personally, I love starting each day with a wonderful little post about their lives and love. I was especially touched by this post: 10 Things That Have Made All the Difference. I am such a fan of making sure we say how much we love each other everyday and love finding ways to show G that I'm his biggest fan. I can't wait to incorporate some of these lovely things into our relationship. I'm buying a journal today for #3!

I love love love you G! You are always the best part of my day and I am truly-incredibly-crazy lucky to get to marry my BFF and partner in crime.

Good Monday to you all! I hope you had a great weekend! We did- lots of rest and a little too much junk food, but whatever...

On Sunday I made a trek to the fabric store in search of odds and ends to make some crafts that have been on my list for a while. New spring fabric for dog bandannas? Check! Fabric for various wedding projects? Check! Felt for backing some retooled brooches? Yep-got that too. And one surprising purchase: burlap. I remember seeing these adorable pennant banners from Funkyshique on etsy a while back and thinking how pretty they were. How brilliant to take something as utilitarian as burlap and make it romantic! I will be making one that says "Just Married" to adorn either our cake table or getaway car!! And then I though how cute it would be to use burlap on the tables to tie in the pennant banners. Plus, it'll make the white china and orange napkins really pop! Apparently a lot of other people had this same idea: I was able to find so many cute examples and even directions to make my own runners on Style Me Pretty. How devine!

Love it or hate it, Valentine's day is on the way. I've been in both categories, but this year, being engaged and all, I am (of course) the poster child for all things love. Well, within reason. We will definitely have a yummy dinner (Bailey's Prime Plus, here we come!) but thats about it. Anything extra we spend will just come out of the honeymoon spa fund, and I am so not down with that. How does a girl express her soppy-mushy-loviness to her fiance without breaking the bank? With a good old-fashioned Valentine card-that's how.Good thing there are plenty of cool options all over the place-enjoy some of my faves:

XO-L

What a gorgeous keepsake!Think Of Me Handkerchief Valentine from Anthropologie